Budget Car Rental

So I had a wedding to attend in NJ on Black Friday and arranged my travel accordingly. I had no problems making the car rental reservation and my credit card got charged, etc. I flew in Thursday (Thanksgiving Day) on time and proceeded to ride the air train to the Budget Rental facility at the Newark Airport.
When I get there… no line… In my head I think, «woohoo!» but the two representatives are helping folks so I am next up. After about standing there for 10 minutes, I realize that there may be a problem since there is another representative running around and radioing people (trying to find cars). So seems like Budget overbooked… now I’m starting to think I’m not going to get a car, but still give them the benefit of the doubt.
When it is my turn I get up to the counter, the girl already looks stressed out, so in the spirit of the holidays, I tried to be super nice and patient. She pulled up my reservation, and then continues to radio people for another 10min trying to find me a car. They do find me one (It sounded like they poached one from Payless), but I’m not complaining, it just needed to be washed, etc. So I wait another 20min and find out later there is an issue with the car. They ended up upgrading my rental to an SUV to give me the last car on the lot… but that was after about an hour of just waiting.
Luckily, I had not planned on any wedding activities that afternoon, but IF I had, I would have been screwed. My low rating is mostly for the fact that they were ill prepared for a reservation that I had made months ago. They eventually corrected it, but not in a very timely manner.

I rented a car with Budget this past weekend and I have to share my experience. I got the quote for the rental car through priceline and I was very excited because the rate was very cheap. That should have been a red flag but I am very naïve when it comes to renting cars. Any who, I rented the car from Newark Airport because I wanted a late pickup and a late drop off time. I arrived there close to midnight on the 6^th and witnessed two employees socializing. When they were done with their conversation they decided to assist the line. The agent that checked me in started quoting me insurance prices when I asked if I can use my own insurance she told me «that’s your prerogative». I was taken back I mean really taken back. She didn’t tell me much else about the car nor did she tell me about the fact mileage was not unlimited. Moving along, she gives me my paperwork and points me to the car, a ford flex. When I got to the car there was a cart seat and trash in the third row. When I told the rep about this, his response was «are you sure you have the right car». I was taken back by this. After reviewing my paperwork he realized I can read and I had the right car. He tells me he would return and drives off with the car. He returns with the 3^rd row cleaned up. So fast forward to Sunday, the day of my return. I get a receipt showing an additional $ 117, the mileage she forgot to tell me about. So I go to the counter, livid. I had had enough. There is a man sitting down helping one customer. He is chewing the heck out of some gum I mean so hard he made me want a piece. So I wait finally, Darlene comes out and I share my experience with her. She was very nice, but I was watching the other agents one is still smacking on gum and another is at the desk on her cell phone holding a conversation while assisting a guest. She places the cell phone inside her shirt and I watching in amazement. None of these people see anything wrong with their actions. I think the experience was disgraceful. If you need video footage I’ll be glad to post it as well

Be careful double check your reservation with the rental agreement. Some agent there is sneaky and tries to take advantage. By travel agency mistake, I had 2 reservations with my name. The girl at the desk did not ask me and of course gave me a daily rate which doubled the weekly rate in total. Back from the trip I had to call customer service to adjust the rate. How hard is to be honest to your customers? Your trick is not going to succeed in the end. What a waste of time.

I dont even want to give them a star. Ok I will give them a star for actually having cars. The absolute worst experience I had renting a car. My friend came in from California to Jersey via Newark Airport. She rented a car for us to drive to Vermont for the long weekend. First car they gave her didn’t start. 2^nd car was great but by the morning of our trip departure it had 2 flat tires. That’s when the poo really hit fan. Calling roadside service was a painful task. Getting a human being took a century and then the one we got, Avis was her name (I know ironic), she was the least pleasant or helpful. She told us it would take 2 – 3 hours to get a tow and told us that if we wanted another car sent to us, we would have to call Budget at the airport. The number she gives us is Roadside assistance again! After 40 minutes of muddling through the automated prompts I finally got a decent person, Sherry. She offered to have a car brought to us in half the time. When we finally got the new car, it had the check engine light on and 34k miles! When we called back to Budget we got hung up on 3 different times to people who promised to call us back if we got «disconnected».
So after all this wasted time (from 8.40am-1.30pm) we had to drive to the airport after all. And when we get there we encounter the queen of apathy, Shelia. This manager could care less about our ordeal with their customer service or the crappie cars. Her idea of sympathy was to give us a sour disposition and begrudgingly «almost a day’s» discount (not the whole day– oh no!).
I am trying to condense the travesty of this situation into an edible amount cuz trust me it was worst then what I have written but I am tired and I think you get the gist. Don’t rent from Budget!!!